Micha Suarez de Koning, Sprout’s Chief Technology Innovation Officer and Mike Pearse, Sprout’s Head of Display were accompanied by Google and DoubleClick representatives for the two-day training.
Designed to help agencies use the power of automation and integration to transform online marketing efforts, and combine data sources to be relevant at the right moments, the training also aimed to teach the team how to further make the best use of dynamic creatives, define the right set of KPIs according to the phases in the path to purchase and establish the right tech infrastructure. It was also intended to help create better, collaborative relationships between all key stakeholders (clients/agencies/Google).
“The hands-on training and in-depth discussions definitely provided some perspective on where the online advertising world is heading, and how clients and agencies can work in partnership with Google and DoubleClick to get the best business return on advertising budgets,” shared Pearse.
Suarez de Koning added, “We saw that our approach to media is the right way, and the way of the future. At Sprout, we consider the user perspective; we don’t start from a media channel perspective. And, using programmatic buying methodology means we can ‘touch’ a user throughout the customer journey, and we can measure how all media bought impacts on the other media – from an awareness phase, to an interest or desire phase, all the way to the acquisition and advocacy phase.”
Some of the key takeouts from the masterclass include:
The power of programmatic allows advertisers to efficiently and effectively spend budgets in order to achieve the business objectives. In the eternal advertising quest to drive a return on investment on every Rand or Dollar spent, DoubleClick and Google’s Programmatic solutions allow the real-time optimisation of campaigns across multiple channels, across multiple devices and from a user centric perspective.
Google’s 'see, think, do, care' approach or framework to buying, assessing and reporting on media performance, provided an interesting outlook on the somewhat linear approach that many advertisers still apply. Pearse shared, “At Sprout, we are guided by a similar approach of 'touch, tell and sell' across channels. With differing KPI’s at the different phases in the path to purchase, it’s about understanding and applying learnings from data to drive more and more customers through the sales funnel.”
As the landscape continues to grow and more technology is released, the capabilities of online advertising are astounding. It’s about staying up-to-date and ahead of the curve in order to successfully embrace programmatic media buying.
The experience was invaluable for Sprout’s programmatic team. The duo expressed how good it was to see that the agency is ahead of the curve, using the latest technologies and strategies. “This was not only confirmation that we truly are the leading programmatic agency in South Africa, but it provided further proof to our client that they are with the right partners and that they can efficiently optimise towards a conversion objective, and assess the true attribution value of their online media spend,” concluded Suarez de Koning.
